HOME DEPARTMENT

Chairman of the Service Authorities (NCIS/NCS)

David Blunkett: I have appointed Paul Lever as the Chairman of the Service Authorities for the National Criminal Intelligence Service and the National Crime Squad from 1 April 2004.
	I have also reappointed Caroline Burton and Jennie Harvey as independent members for a further two years from the same date.
	These appointments will continue until such time as the arrangements for the Serious Organised Crime Agency are established.

Managed Migration

David Blunkett: I am today announcing a series of measures to prevent abuse of immigration routes open to those wishing to come to the United Kingdom to study, work and marry here. These measures build on work which IND has been taking forward over several months, together with other departments, and which I indicated to the House on 30 March when I set out the next stage of policy in this area. They have been finalised by a series of managed migration taskforces, which we have set up to bring together policy, operational and intelligence personnel, enabling better co-ordination and focus. I am confident that the resulting package of measures achieves the necessary balance, in these areas, between facilitating the vast majority of genuine applicants from whom this country derives enormous benefits and protecting the system against actual and potential abuse. Other areas remain under review.
	Students
	The Government will establish a list of accredited private colleges. Discussions are already well advanced with the British Council and others on accreditation of English language schools. We will establish a scheme to broaden this to other colleges.
	By the end of the year we will be in a position of only issuing visas to students attending accredited colleges. In the meantime, where there are doubts about whether a college not on the list is bona fide, applications will be put on hold while the Home Office investigates them. An urgent programme of such investigations will begin next week.
	We will be consulting on introducing a requirement for all educational institutions to notify the Home Office where a foreign student does not enrol, or enrols and then disappears.
	We will also step up enforcement. This will include targeted multi-agency enforcement operations to disrupt proprietors of sham institutions and remove illegal staff and/or students. We will create more Risk Assessment Units in Embassies abroad to work alongside entry clearance staff and improve the flow of intelligence on fraud and abuse.
	We will consult on a requirement on foreign students to demonstrate self-sufficiency, and ability to meet the financial requirements of the course before granting entry clearance.
	Marriage
	I am announcing today that we will legislate to restrict the capacity to authorise marriages involving foreign nationals from outside the EEA to a number of designated register offices. We are consulting with registrars about the most effective means of doing so. This will enable expertise to be built up on abuse and mean that we can focus our enforcement efforts. Clearly not all marriages involving foreign nationals present the same level of risk in terms of immigration abuse: for example, foreign nationals who have been resident here for many years. We will be working with registrars to refine our proposals to achieve the necessary balance between facilitating the vast majority of genuine applicants and protecting the system from abuse.
	We will also consult on making further changes to the marriage laws to reinforce these proposals, including empowering registrars to refuse to conduct a marriage they suspect is being carried out for the purposes of illegal immigration, until it has been properly investigated by the immigration authorities.
	The Government will underpin these changes through a better co-ordinated intelligence-led focus on marriage abuse supported by an effective enforcement response where cases of abuse are detected.
	In the coming months there will be a major new enforcement effort targeting sham marriages and those who organise them with the aim of arresting those engaged in such marriages and, where appropriate, prosecuting the organised criminality behind them.
	We are strengthening current arrangements for joint working between caseworkers and immigration officers to ensure a better focus on analysing intelligence, and more effective following up reports, for example from Registrars about suspicious marriages.
	We will set up a joint working group between the Home Office and Registrars to share intelligence and enable the enforcement effort and other counter-measures to be better targeted.
	Quota-Based Schemes
	The temporary quota based schemes for the hospitality and food processing industries are due to be reviewed at the end of May in the light of EU enlargement. I have also ordered a review of the quota based scheme for agricultural workers, for the same reason—around a third of these places were filled last year by nationals of the new EU accession states.
	I have decided that in consultation with industry, we will at the end of May be setting reduced quotas for these schemes to reflect the fact that from 1 May accession nationals will be able to come and work through the planned workers registration scheme. We will be able to take account of early information from the registration scheme in revising the quotas.
	We will at the same time review control of both schemes.
	ECAA
	We will also be looking at the rules and practices for ECAA applications, from the remaining countries who will be covered by that scheme after 1 May, taking account of the outcome of the investigation, which Ken Sutton is undertaking, of procedures for dealing with ECAA applications in Bulgaria and Romania. In the meantime, ECAA applications from Romania and Bulgaria continue to be suspended.

NORTHERN IRELAND

Food Safety Promotion Board

Angela Smith: Copies of the Food Safety Promotion Board annual report 2002 incorporating financial statements to December 2001 have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	This document provides details of the Food Safety Promotion Board's activities, its performance to the end of 2002 and its expenditure to December 2001.

Waterways Ireland

Angela Smith: Copies of the Waterways Ireland Annual Report and Accounts for the year ended 31 December 2002 have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses.
	This document provides details of Waterways Ireland's activities, its performance, and its expenditure for that year.

DEFENCE

Defence Science and Technology Laboratory

Adam Ingram: The following key targets have been agreed for the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) for Financial Year 2004–05.
	At least maintain overall customer satisfaction and understanding of Dstl; by 31 March 2005 implement new methodology and set the baseline against which Dstl will monitor and improve its customer relationships in the future.
	Maintain and by the end of a three-year period show an increase in score for scientific and engineering capability in the technical benchmarking exercise from 67 per cent. in 2002–03 to 72 per cent. in 2005–06.
	By 31 July 2004 publish an update of Dstl's technical strategy that identifies the key technical issues and Dstl's role in addressing them, and by 31 March 2005 agree with MOD a future process that ensures that Dstl aligns itself with MOD's S and T outputs.
	Achieve planned progress to meet the completion date of 2008 for the transfer of Dstl onto three core sites at Porton Down, Portsdown West and Fort Halstead. Key milestones in 2004–05 are: issue the invitation to tender for the site rationalisation and facilities management contract
	(December 2004); pilot office layout options (March 2005); produce a plan for site remediation at Porton Down (October 2004).
	Pilot at least three areas of category management—procurement of manpower technical support, travel and laboratory equipment—to achieve cost and efficiency savings of £5.5 million by 31 March 2005.
	Maintain the average charge rate for manpower for 2004–05 and beyond below that for 2001–02 uplifted by GDP deflator.
	Achieve a ROCE of at least 3.5 per cent. and a MOD dividend of £3 million 1 .
	1 In addition to the 2004–05 ROCE target of at least 3.5 per cent. Dstl will aim to achieve a ROCE of at least 3.5 per cent. averaged across the period 2004–05 to 2008–09, as agreed with HM Treasury.

CONSTITUTIONAL AFFAIRS

House of Lords Reform

Christopher Leslie: My noble Friend the Lord Chancellor has today published the responses to the consultation paper "Next steps for the House of Lords", and a Government summary of these. Copies of the summary have been placed in the Libraries of both Houses. The individual responses are available on the Department for Constitutional Affairs' website, www.dca.gov.uk.

TREASURY

Community Budget 2004

Ruth Kelly: The Statement on the 2004 Budget of the European Communities (EC Budget), entitled "European Community Finances" (Cm 6134), has today been laid before Parliament. This White Paper is the twenty-fourth in the series. As in the past, it covers annual budgetary matters and includes details of recent developments in European Community financial management and in countering fraud against the EC Budget. It also describes the EC Budget for 2004 as adopted by the European Parliament, and details the United Kingdom's gross and net contributions to the EC Budget for calendar years 1998 to 2004 and financial years 1998–99 to 2005–06.

ENVIRONMENT FOOD AND RURAL AFFAIRS

Single Payment Scheme (English Regions)

Margaret Beckett: On 12 February I announced the basis upon which the new single payment will be calculated in England once the scheme comes into operation next year. As part of those arrangements, I said that England would be divided into two regions, namely the severely disadvantaged areas of the less favoured areas (SDA) and land outside the SDA.
	Since that announcement, I have been approached by a number of key representative interests who have argued that the original proposal did not adequately reflect the extent of the different land types in England. They have requested a further division of land in England that would identify moorland within the SDA as a separate region. They argued that this would more closely reflect land conditions and productive capacity and, therefore, current subsidy payments.
	I have given careful consideration to those representations and to others which have argued for alternative solutions. However the further refinement of a moorland line within the SDA was ultimately the proposal of all the main representative bodies.
	One of the purposes of setting the regional boundaries as proposed was to provide some limitation on the redistributive effects of the move to the new flat rate single payment. I accept that the boundaries as announced might have resulted in redistribution of subsidy away from more productive SDA land to less productive moorland. I have therefore decided to amend the regional boundaries as announced on 12 February.
	The regions in England will now comprise the moorland within the upland SDA; the rest of the upland SDA; and all land outside the upland SDA. The upland SDA comprises all the areas classified in accordance with Article 3(4) of Directive 75/268/EEC. It does not include the Isles of Scilly which were classified as a less favoured area in accordance with Article 3(5) of that Directive.
	In selecting moorland in the SDA as one of the regions, I am aware that it is possible that there may be some minor inaccuracies in the location of the boundary at certain points. I am therefore considering whether and what practical arrangements can be made for consideration of representations on this issue as part of the arrangements for the introduction of the new scheme. I will make a further statement on this at an early date.
	I recognise that this decision to amend the regional boundaries may come as a disappointment to some. Although there will be farmers in the SDA who will gain from this decision, some others, particularly those within the moorland line, will see payments at a lower level than would have been the case under the original announcement, and in some cases less than their coupled historic receipts.
	We will need to see that hill farming communities receive appropriate support from other sources, including the England rural development programme. The hill farm allowance scheme will continue to operate for the remainder of the current England rural development programme (up to the end of 2006). In addition, I want to ensure that farms in the uplands have a full opportunity to be rewarded for improved environmental management of their land, including through agri-environment schemes. I have therefore asked my officials to consider how the next round of rural development programming (from 2007 onwards), can better reflect the needs of upland communities, and the public interest in good management of some of our best-loved landscapes.